Collaborative Teaching and Learning

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Today our facilitator workshops focused on collaborative learning and teaching. There was lots of laughter as we shared ideas throughout the day. We facilitated an introduction to collaborative learning using a
reading circle approach that had the Kenyan teachers reading their handouts and
in their circles sharing what they had read. We discussed the various elements
of collaborative learning and how these could be applied to their classrooms.
The large group broke into subject groups either primary (1-8) or secondary and
began planning sessions for next week.

Later in the day the entire group spent quite a bit of time planning the week 3 timetable when we will be joined by approximately 80 more teachers. This will be the time that the facilitators take everything we worked
on together and facilitate their own workshops. We’ll be here as observers,
supporters, recorders and resource people but will not be facilitating the
workshops.

There are many cultural and teaching differences that we are discussing and having fun with. We break for tea at 10:30am and 4:00pm as is the Kenyan tradition. The Kenyans usually break for 30 minutes while we’ve only
schedule 15 minutes. The Kenyan teachers like to sit and enjoy their tea
leisurely while as Canadians we are comfortable bringing our tea to class. At
every meal we are being told that we aren’t eating enough and we need to gain
weight before we go home. The Kenyan diet has much more starch than us with a
typical meal for us at the school having rice, potatoes and ugali which is made
from maize flour. Titus, the assistant catering manager, hopes that he can put
5-10 kg on us before we go home. I hope not!